Dog park: How hard could it be?

Monday

Nov 19, 2012 at 12:01 AMNov 19, 2012 at 8:05 AM

While New Bedford waits, dog parks are springing up everywhere in America, in places where civic leaders aren't paralyzed with fear and indecision.

So, for four years the New Bedford City Council has had a committee charged with the task of finding a place for a dog park, where people can let their pet pals run off the leash and play with each other.

Meanwhile, while New Bedford waits, dog parks are springing up everywhere in America, in places where civic leaders aren't paralyzed with fear and indecision.

Albuquerque, I am told, has 14 of them. And while New Bedford can't be compared with Albuquerque, it can be compared to Fall River, which managed, without lawsuits and without riots, to establish a dog park that is drawing people and dogs from as far away as — New Bedford.

In an attempt to be helpful on this topic, I visited the Fall River dog park, which is on Locust Street, smack in the middle of the city with a commanding view to the south.

It isn't much to look at, really. It's half of a 2-acre playground, minus playground equipment. It's a grassy space with a handful of trees, enclosed by a chain-link fence with a two-step interlock method of getting in and out without the dogs running off.

There's one side for big dogs, one side for small ones. The owners decide.

But despite its plainness, it's got what every cooped-up urban neighborhood dog craves: the chance to run off the leash, burn a little energy and perhaps meet some new dog friends in the bargain.

There is no lock on the gates, but the park is open during daylight hours. There is no attendant, no doggy cop to enforce the rules, the main one being "pick up after your dog."

One might think this would be a problem. It's not. Nancy Smith, director of Fall River's Parks Department, told me, "It's been pretty good. I have to say, in some places there's less of an issue there than at other parks in the city. We have some people who won't pick up but someone else will do it."

In other words, people don't want to mess up as good thing and are keeping an eye on each other.

The community's got quite a stake in this park, which opened early this year. Tammy Mahan, a member of the Fall River Coalition for Animal Awareness, which advocates for spaying and neutering of feral cats in particular, pushed to establish the park, and she said, "there are no complaints that I'm aware of."

Rather, dog park users are not only socializing at the park but are doing it on a popular Facebook page set up just for this one park.

Tracey Rodrigues and husband Mike took things a step further. They and their relatives and friends conducted a fundraiser last year and raised nearly $2,000 to buy some doggie play equipment, such as standing metal hoops to jump through.

The city stepped up with the materials for voc-tech students to build a number of metal benches. "The mayor's office was very involved with that," Tracey told me.

So Fall River has managed to do in only about a year something that has eluded New Bedford for four. And they've got a safe, clean, successful, attractive, dog park with no full-time attendant checking IDs, no admission license, none of that. Just a place to go where dogs and people can socialize.

See? It's not that hard.

Steve Urbon's column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in The Standard-Times and SouthCoastToday.com. He can be reached at 508-979-4448 or surbon@s-t.com.